Calendars display a collection of events into the future. You can add calendar events and specify a data and time and duration for each event.
The colour of the calendar will be based on your currently selected template/theme.
Only events that are in the past will be displayed in your calendar. This is what makes Calendar events different to news items. The news item summary panel always displays the last news items regardless of their date. Calendar events 'auto expire' once their data has passed so you don't need to worry about removing them.
This makes Calendar events much more appropriate than news items for items that are really events which happen at a certain time.
If there are no future events in your organization then the calendar widget will be empty - so you should add some events to give your website that "there is stuff happening here" feel :)
Adding an event to the calendar
To add a Calendar event you need to have the 'Author' role assigned to you.
If you are responsible for adding calendar events and you don't have the 'Author' role you can ask a person with the 'role manager' role to grant you the 'Author' role.
You can click the '+' in the calendar header or you can go to the Admininstration page and then, in the left menu panel choose Basic Components > Calendar.
Click 'Add event' and choose the type of event you wish to add.
Enter the date and duration of the event and press Save.
You can disable the event at any time by marking it as not active.
You can choose to ignore the start time if that is not important for a particular event eg., early bird discount ends on a particular date but you don't want to specify a time.
You can choose to ignore the duration if the end time is not important for a particular event eg., new system goes live at 10AM.